Enzo Biagi (August 9, 1920 – November 6, 2007) was an Italian journalist and writer.
On May 9, 2001, just two days before the general elections in Italy, during his daily prime time 10-minute TV show Il Fatto, broadcast on Rai Uno, Biagi interviewed the popular actor and director Roberto Benigni, who gave a hilarious talk about Silvio Berlusconi declaring his preference for the other candidate, Francesco Rutelli from the Olive Tree coalition.
Biagi disappeared from TV screens a few months after Berlusconi's declarations in Sofia named also Editto Bulgaro, where the then-Prime Minister accused the popular journalist, together with fellow journalist Michele Santoro and showman/comedian Daniele Luttazzi, of having made criminal use of the public television service.
Biagi's defenders argue that a public service should provide pluralism, and that a country where government prevents opposing ideas from being voiced on air is a régime.
The issue of Berlusconi's motives for entering politics in the first place emerged in an interview that he gave with Biagi and Indro Montanelli, stating "If I don't enter politics, I will go to jail and become bankrupt."
On April 22, 2007, 86-year-old Enzo Biagi made his TV comeback on the RAI with RT - Rotocalco Televisivo, a current affairs show which is broadcast on Raitre. At the opening of the show, he declared:
Until shortly before his death he was also a columnist for the daily Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, which he had worked for since the early 1970s.
Category:1920 births Category:2007 deaths Category:People from the Province of Bologna Category:Italian anti-fascists Category:Action Party (Italy) politicians Category:Italian resistance members Category:Members of Giustizia e Libertà Category:Italian journalists Category:Italian television personalities Category:Bancarella Prize winners
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He is also famous as in 2002 he was effectively banned from RAI, the Italian public broadcasting company, by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who was angry because Luttazzi, at that time host of Satyricon, a raunchy late night comedy show, interviewed Marco Travaglio, the author of a book that pointed at the unknown origins Mr. Berlusconi's wealth as potential links with the Mafia. Nowadays he only works in theatres. He is often cited by the European press (i.e. The Economist, Le Monde, El Pais) as proof of Mr. Berlusconi's censorship of the opposition. In addition to writing and performing monologues and theatre works, he occasionally writes political and satirical essays for Micromega and il manifesto, two left-wing periodicals.
Luttazzi is also interested in drawing, with a selection of his graphical works published as a book called Capolavori (Masterpieces). Daniele Luttazzi is also a musician: as of 2007, he released two CDs, named respectively Money for Dope and School is Boring, in which he sings in English.
In 1988, his monologue won an award in a comedy contest held at Rome's Teatro Sistina.
In 1998, he began his first one-man show, called Barracuda. Luttazzi did monologues about recent news, interviews with famous showbiz and political personalities, and skits for adult audiences. The same formula was then adopted for his next TV show, called Satyricon, aired by the public channel Rai Due.
In March 2001, Luttazzi interviewed journalist Marco Travaglio about the contents of his book "L'odore dei soldi" (The scent of Money). Topic: the mysterious origins of Berlusconi's money. "Satyricon" was suspended, Silvio Berlusconi, Mediaset, Fininvest and the Forza Italia party sued Luttazzi and Travaglio for defamation, asking them 40 billions lire (about 20 million euros). Luttazzi and Travaglio won all the trials.In 2002, Berlusconi said that Luttazzi, the journalist Enzo Biagi (the Italian analogous of Walter Cronkite) and the anchorman Michele Santoro made "a criminal use of public tv" (Rai, the State owned tv company) so Berlusconi "hoped this thing couldn't happen again." This action has since then been named the Editto Bulgaro, and had an harsh impact on the careers of those three men. Since the banning, Luttazzi is still not working in Rai, his once huge tv share notwithstanding.
After television, Luttazzi concentrated on theatre shows and bookwriting.
Luttazzi returned on tv in 2007 with the new satyrical programme "Decameron: Politica, Sesso, Religione e Morte" (Decameron: Politics, Sex, Religion and Death) for the small national private channel La7. He was suspended again after the taping of the sixth episode of the show (a monologue about the Pope's new encyclical).
In 2010 Luttazzi has been accused of having plagiarised many more jokes from comedians such as George Carlin, Mitch Hedberg, Larry Miller, Eddie Izzard, Chris Rock, Bill Hicks and Robert Schimmel. He stated on his personal blog that he adds unoriginal material to his work as a "treasure hunt" for his fans, even though he previously declared that the material for his shows was original. As June 2010, more than 500 jokes have been found copied from other comedians' shows.
Matteo Molinari, an Italian joke writer who currently lives in Los Angeles, is contacting various comedians whose jokes have been supposedly plagiarised to get their opinion on the controversy.
Other commentators, such as Wu Ming, while supporting the plagiarism accusation in full, pointed out that, with more and more jokes being spotted, many former fans were switching to angered detractors of Luttazzi, with the risk of denying Luttazzi's original artistic and cultural contributions and deep renovation of Italian satire.
On June 16, 2010 Luttazzi appeared in Keith Olbermann's "worst in the world".
Category:1961 births Category:Living people Category:People from the Province of Rimini Category:Italian writers Category:Italian stand-up comedians Category:Obscenity controversies Category:Italian satirists Category:Plagiarism controversies Category:Kabarettists
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| Name | Ugo Tognazzi |
|---|---|
| Birthname | Ottavio Tognazzi |
| Birth date | March 23, 1922 |
| Birth place | Cremona, Lombardy, Italy |
| Death date | October 27, 1990 |
| Death place | Rome, Italy |
| Spouse | Franca Bettoia (1972-1990) |
| Years active | 1950 - 1990 |
| Occupation | actor, director, screenwriter |
Ugo Tognazzi (23 March 1922 - 27 October 1990) was an Italian film, TV, and theatre actor, director, and screenwriter.
After his return in the native city in 1936, he worked in a salami production plant. In World War II, he was called to the Army, returning home after the Armistice of September 1943. His passion for spectacles and acting dates from his early years, and also during the conflict he had organized spectacles for his fellow soldiers. In 1945 he moved to Milan, where he was enrolled in the theatrical company led by Wanda Osiris. A few years later he formed his own successful musical revue company.
After the successful role in The Fascist (Il Federale) (1961), directed by Luciano Salce, Tognazzi became one of the most renowned characters of the so-called Commedia all'Italiana (Italian comedy style). He worked with all the main directors of Italian cinema, including Mario Monicelli (Amici miei), Marco Ferreri (La grande abbuffata), Nanni Loy, Dino Risi, Pier Paolo Pasolini (Porcile), Ettore Scola, Alberto Lattuada, Pupi Avati and others. Tognazzi also directed some of his films, including the 1967 film Il fischio al naso. The film was entered into the 17th Berlin International Film Festival.
He was a famous actor in Italy, and starred in some important international films, which brought him fame.
In 1981 he won the Best Male Actor Award at the Cannes Film Festival for La tragedia di un uomo ridicolo, directed by Bernardo Bertolucci. While he worked primarily in Italian cinema, Tognazzi is perhaps best remembered for his role as Renato Baldi, the gay owner of a St. Tropez nightclub, in the 1978 French comedy La Cage aux Folles which became the highest grossing foreign film ever released in the U.S.
His sons Ricky Tognazzi (b. 1955) and Gianmarco Tognazzi (b. 1967) are cinema actors. He was also the father of the Norwegian film director and film producer Thomas Robsahm (b. 1964). His daughter Maria Sole Tognazzi (b. 1971) is, like Ricky, a film director.
Category:Italian actors Category:Italian film directors Category:People from Cremona Category:1922 births Category:1990 deaths Category:Italian screenwriters Category:Italian film actors
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| Name | Roberto Saviano |
|---|---|
| Birthname | Roberto Saviano |
| Birthdate | September 22, 1979 |
| Birthplace | Naples, Italy |
| Occupation | Novelist, Journalist |
| Nationality | Italian |
| Period | 2000–present |
| Notableworks | Gomorrah |
In his writings, articles, television programs, and books he employs prose and news-reporting style to narrate the story of the Camorra (a powerful Neapolitan mafia-like organization), exposing its territory and business connections.
Since 2006, following the publication of his bestselling book Gomorrah (Gomorra in Italian), where he describes the clandestine particulars of the Camorra business, Saviano has been threatened by several Neapolitan “godfathers”. The Italian Minister of the Interior has granted him a permanent police escort. Because of his courageous stance, he is considered a "national hero" by author-philosopher Umberto Eco.
In 2006, following the success of the non-fiction Gomorrah, which denounces the activities of the Camorra, Saviano received ominous threats. These have been confirmed by the collaborators for justice and reports that have revealed attempts on Saviano’s life, by the Casalesi clan. Investigators have claimed the Camorra selected Casalesi clan boss Giuseppe Setola to kill Saviano over the book, although the alleged hit never occurred.
After the Neapolitan Police investigations the Italian Minister for Interior Affairs Giuliano Amato assigned a personal body guard and transferred him from Naples. In autumn 2008, the informant Carmine Schiavone, cousin of the imprisoned Casalesi clan boss Francesco Schiavone revealed to the authorities that the clan had planned to eliminate Saviano and his police escort by Christmas on the motorway between Rome and Naples with a bomb."; in the same period, Saviano announced his will to leave Italy, in order to stop having to live as a convict and reclaim his life.
On 20 October 2008, six Nobel Prize-awarded authors and intellectuals (Orhan Pamuk, Dario Fo, Rita Levi Montalcini, Desmond Tutu, Günter Grass, and Mikhail Gorbachev) published an article in which they say that they side with Saviano against Camorra, and they think that Camorra is not just a problem of security and public order, but also a democratic one. They also think that the Italian government must protect his life, and help Saviano in having a normal life. Signatures are collected on the site of the Italian newspaper La Repubblica.
On 10 December 2009, in the presence of Nobel Prize awarded Dario Fo, Saviano received the title of Honorary Member of the Academy of Fine Arts of Brera and the Second Level Academic Diploma in Communication and Art Teaching Honoris Causa, the highest recognition by the Brera Academy equivalent to a postgraduate degree. Saviano dedicated the awards to the people from the south of Italy living in Milan.
Saviano contributed an op-ed piece to the January 24, 2010 issue of the New York Times entitled, "Italy's African Heroes." He wrote about the January 2010 riots between African immigrants and Italians in Rosarno, a town in Calabria. Saviano suggests that the Africans' rioting was more of a response to their exploitation by the 'Ndrangheta, or Calabrian mafia, than to the hostility of native Italians.
On November 2010 he started hosting, with Fabio Fazio, the Italian television program "Vieni via con me", broadcasted by Rai 3.
Category:1979 births Category:Living people Category:European Film Awards winners (people) Category:People from Naples Category:Italian journalists Category:Italian writers Category:Antimafia Category:History of the Camorra in Italy Category:Non-fiction writers about organized crime in Italy Category:Viareggio Prize winners
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| Order | 7th President of Italy |
|---|---|
| Primeminister | Giulio Andreotti Francesco Cossiga Arnaldo Forlani Giovanni Spadolini Amintore Fanfani Bettino Craxi |
| Term start | July 9, 1978 |
| Term end | June 29, 1985 |
| Predecessor | Giovanni Leone |
| Successor | Francesco Cossiga |
| Order2 | President of the Italian Chamber of Deputies |
| Term end2 | June 4, 1976 |
| Term start2 | July 5, 1968 |
| Predecessor2 | Brunetto Bucciarelli-Ducci |
| Successor2 | Pietro Ingrao |
| Order3 | Lifetime Senator |
| Constituency3 | Former President |
| Term start3 | June 29, 1985 |
| Term end3 | February 24, 1990 |
| Birth date | September 25, 1896 |
| Birth place | Stella, Italy |
| Death date | February 24, 1990 |
| Death place | Rome, Italy |
| Nationality | Italian |
| Spouse | Carla Voltolina |
| Party | Socialist Party |
| Religion | (None) Atheism |
His philosophy teacher was Adelchi Baratono, a reformist socialist who contributed to his approach to Socialism and probably introduced him to the inner circles of the Ligurian labour movements. Pertini obtained a Law degree from the University of Genoa.
Sandro Pertini was against Italy's participation in World War I, but served as a lieutenant and was awarded several medals as for bravery. In 1918 he joined the United Socialist Party, PSU, then he settled in Florence where he also graduated in political science with a thesis entitled La Cooperazione ("Cooperation"; 1924). While in the city, Pertini also came into contact with people such as Gaetano Salvemini, the brothers Carlo and Nello Rosselli, and Ernesto Rossi. Pertini was physically beaten by Fascist squads on several occasions, but never lost faith in his ideals.
In 1935 he was interned on Santo Stefano Island, Ventotene (LT), Pontine Islands, an island in the Tyrrhenian Sea, where he remained through Italy's entry into World War II and until 1943. There he saved the famous diaries of Antonio Gramsci. Although he had begun suffering from severe illness, Pertini never demanded pardon. He was released a month after Benito Mussolini's arrest, and joined the Italian resistance movement against the Nazi German occupiers and Mussolini's new regime - the Italian Social Republic. Arrested by the Germans, he was sentenced to death but freed by a partisan raid. Pertini then travelled north to organize partisan war as an executive member of PSU (alongside Rodolfo Morandi and Lelio Basso).
In spite of his intransigent attitude toward the Italian Communist Party, Pertini was suspicious of many policies enforced by the PSI. He criticized all forms of colonialism, as well as corruption in the Italian state and within the socialist party, where he kept an independent political position.
He was appointed president of the Italian Chamber of Deputies in 1968, and in 1978 President of the Italian Republic, the highest office in the Republic. As President he succeeded in regaining the public's trust in the State and institutions. During the Brigate Rosse terrorism period of the Anni di piombo, Pertini was a defender of the institutions he represented. His death in Rome was viewed by many as a national tragedy, and he is arguably one of modern Italy's most accomplished politicians. In December 1988 Pertini was the first person to be awarded with the highly regarded Otto Hahn Peace Medal in Gold by the United Nations Association of Germany (Deutsche Gesellschaft für die Vereinten Nationen, DGVN) in Berlin, "for outstanding services to peace and international understanding, especially for his political ethics and practical humanity."
Category:1896 births Category:1990 deaths Category:People from the Province of Savona Category:Italian resistance members
Category:Italian atheists Category:Italian anti-fascists Category:Italian Socialist Party politicians Category:Presidents of Italy Category:Presidents of the Italian Chamber of Deputies Category:Italian Life Senators Category:Recipients of the Gold Medal of Military Valor Category:Recipients of the Silver Medal of Military Valor Category:University of Genoa Category:United Socialist Party (Italy, 1922–1930) politicians
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| Name | Michele Sindona |
|---|---|
| Imagesize | 200px |
| Birth date | May 08, 1920 |
| Birth place | Patti, Italy |
| Death date | March 22, 1986 |
| Death place | Voghera, Italy |
| Occupation | Banker |
| Nationality | Italian |
Michele Sindona (May 8, 1920 - March 22, 1986) was an Italian banker and convicted felon. Known in banking circles as "The Shark", Sindona was a member of Propaganda Due (#0501), a secret lodge of Italian Freemasonry, and had clear connections to the Mafia. He was allegedly fatally poisoned in prison while serving a life sentence for the murder of lawyer Giorgio Ambrosoli.
In 1972, Sindona purchased a controlling interest in Long Island's Franklin National Bank. He was hailed as "the saviour of the lira" and was named "Man of the Year" in January 1974 by American Ambassador to Italy, John Volpe. But that April a sudden stock market crash led to what is known as Il Crack Sindona. The Franklin Bank's profit fell by as much as 98% compared to the previous year, and Sindona suffered a 40 million dollar loss, with the result that Sindona began losing most of the banks he had acquired over the previous seventeen years. On October 8, 1974, the bank was declared insolvent due to mismanagement and fraud, involving losses in foreign currency speculation and poor loan policies.
According to the Mafia turncoat (pentito) Francesco Marino Mannoia, Sindona laundered the proceeds of heroin trafficking for the Bontade-Spatola-Inzerillo-Gambino network. The mafiosi were determined to get their money back and would play an important role in Sindona's attempt to save his banks.
While under indictment in the US, Sindona staged a bogus kidnapping in August 1979 to conceal a mysterious 11-week trip to Sicily before his scheduled fraud trial. The brother-in-law of Mafia boss Stefano Bontade, Giacomo Vitale, was one of the persons who organized Sindona’s travel. The real purpose of the kidnapping was to issue sparsely disguised blackmail notes to Sindona’s past political allies – among them Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti – to engineer the rescue of his banks and recover Cosa Nostra’s money.
He threatened Enrico Cuccia, president of the Mediobanca who was opposed to the reorganization/rescue plan. In Palermo, Sindona went to the house of Joseph Miceli Crimi, an American-Italian doctor and Freemason. Dr. Crimi later admitted to the judges that he went to Arezzo to talk with Licio Gelli about Sindona's situation. Licio Gelli then started to interest two judges, Giuliano Turone and Gherardo Colombo.
The plot failed and after his "release" from the kidnappers Sindona surrendered to the FBI. He was convicted in 1980 in the United States on 65 counts including fraud, perjury, false bank statements and misappropriation of bank funds. He was represented by one of the nation's leading attorneys, Ivan Fisher. While serving in US Federal Prison, the Italian government applied for the extradition of Sindona back to Italy to stand trial for murder. "The Shark" was sentenced to 25 years in Italian prison on March 27, 1984. On March 18, 1986, he was poisoned with cyanide in his coffee, in his cell at the prison in Voghera while serving a life sentence for the murder of Giorgio Ambrosoli.
Category:1920 births Category:1986 deaths Category:People from the Province of Messina Category:Deaths by poisoning Category:Italian bankers Category:Murdered bankers Category:Members of Propaganda Due Category:People murdered by organized crime Category:Deaths related to the Years of Lead (Italy) Category:Italian murder victims Category:People murdered in Italy
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Giuseppe Fava (Palazzolo Acreide, September 15, 1925 - Catania, January 5, 1984), also known as Pippo, was an Sicilian writer, investigative journalist, playwright and Antimafia activist who was killed by the Mafia. He was the founder of the I Siciliani monthly magazine. His motto in life was: "is there any use in living if you don't have the courage to fight?"
However, it were the investigations into Cosa Nostra and its tentacles in politics and business — in particular those of Sicily's biggest Catania-based construction firms, owned by the four famous Cavalieri del Lavoro, Carmelo Costanzo, Francesco Finocchiaro, Mario Rendo and Gaetano Graci (one of the owners of the newspaper that had sacked Fava) — that would determine Fava's fate. Graci went on regular hunting parties with Nitto Santapaola, the undisputed Mafia boss of Catania, who was on the payroll of Costanzo as well. In the first edition of I Siciliani Fava published an article "I quattro cavalieri dell'apocalisse mafiosa" ("The four horsemen of the Mafia apocalypse"), exposing the corruption and political influence peddling by the four Knights that tied together the local Mafia, high finance and political figures.
In 1994, Maurizio Avola, a nephew of Santapaola, confessed the killing of Fava, and became a pentito. He also confessed some 70 other murders. Avola said that his uncle Nitto Santapaola had ordered the killing of the journalist, as a favour for the cavalieri. In 1998, Santapaola and Aldo Ercolano were convicted for ordering the killing of Giuseppe Fava. In 2001 the Court of Appeal in Catania confirmed the life sentences of Santapaola and Ercolano and the actual killer Maurizio Avola, but acquitted Marcello D'Agata, Vincenzo Santapaola and Franco Giammuso who allegedly had assisted the murderer. Avola was sentenced to six years and six months. In 2003, the Supreme Court confirmed the sentences of Santapaola, Ercolano and Avola.
His son Claudio Fava is a Member of the European Parliament for the Italian Islands with the Democrats of the Left (DS).
The volumes Process to Sicily and The Sicilians, of 1970 and 1978, collect Giuseppe Fava’s most meaningful journalistic inquiries. Among his novels there are Gente di rispetto (1975), Prima che vi uccidano (1977), Passione di Michele (1980).
Category:1925 births Category:1984 deaths Category:People from the Province of Syracuse Category:Antimafia Category:Non-fiction writers about organized crime in Italy Category:Italian journalists Category:Assassinated Italian journalists Category:Italian magazine founders Category:People murdered by the Sicilian Mafia
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| Honorific-prefix | Senatore |
|---|---|
| Name | Giulio Andreotti |
| Imagesize | 220px |
| Order | 42nd Prime Minister of Italy |
| President | Giovanni Leone |
| Term start | 17 February 1972 |
| Term end | 7 July 1973 |
| Predecessor | Emilio Colombo |
| Successor | Mariano Rumor |
| President2 | Giovanni Leone Alessandro Pertini |
| Deputy2 | Ugo La Malfa |
| Term start2 | 29 July 1976 |
| Term end2 | 4 August 1979 |
| Predecessor2 | Aldo Moro |
| Successor2 | Francesco Cossiga |
| President3 | Francesco Cossiga |
| Deputy3 | Claudio Martelli |
| Term start3 | 22 July 1989 |
| Term end3 | 24 April 1992 |
| Predecessor3 | Ciriaco De Mita |
| Successor3 | Giuliano Amato |
| Order4 | Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs |
| Term start4 | August 4, 1983 |
| Term end4 | July 22, 1989 |
| Predecessor4 | Emilio Colombo |
| Successor4 | Gianni De Michelis |
| Primeminister4 | Bettino Craxi Amintore Fanfani Giovanni Goria Ciriaco de Mita |
| Order5 | Italian Minister of Defense |
| Primeminister5 | Antonio Segni Fernando Tambroni Amintore Fanfani Giovanni Leone Aldo Moro |
| Predecessor5 | Antonio Segni |
| Successor5 | Roberto Tremelloni |
| Term start5 | February 15, 1959 |
| Term end5 | February 23, 1966 |
| Primeminister6 | Mariano Rumor |
| Predecessor6 | Mario Tanassi |
| Successor6 | Arnaldo Forlani |
| Term start6 | March 14, 1974 |
| Term end6 | November 23, 1974 |
| Order7 | Italian Minister of the Interior |
| Primeminister7 | Amintore Fanfani |
| Predecessor7 | Amintore Fanfani |
| Successor7 | Mario Scelba |
| Term start7 | January 18, 1954 |
| Term end7 | February 8, 1954 |
| Primeminister8 | Himself |
| Predecessor8 | Francesco Cossiga |
| Successor8 | Virginio Rognoni |
| Term start8 | May 11, 1978 |
| Term end8 | June 13, 1978 |
| Order9 | Lifetime Senator |
| Term start9 | June 19, 1991 |
| Constituency9 | Appointment by President Cossiga |
| Birth date | January 14, 1919 |
| Birth place | Rome, Latium, Italy |
| Nationality | Italian |
| Spouse | Livia Danese |
| Alma mater | University of Rome La Sapienza |
| Residence | Rome, Italy |
| Profession | Politics Journalist |
| Religion | Roman Catholicism |
| Party | Christian Democracy |
Giulio Andreotti (born January 14, 1919) is an Italian politician of the now dissolved centrist Christian Democratic party who served as the 42nd Prime Minister of Italy from 1972 to 1973, from 1976 to 1979, and from 1989 to 1992. He also served as Minister of the Interior (1954 and 1978), Defense Minister (1959–1966 and 1974) and Foreign Minister (1983–1989), and he has been a Senator for life since 1991. He is also a journalist and author.
He is sometimes called Divo Giulio (from Latin Divus Iulius, "divine Julius", an epithet of Julius Caesar). The film Il Divo deals with Andreotti's ties to the Mafia and won the Prix du Jury at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival.
During World War II Andreotti wrote for Rivista del Lavoro, a Fascist propaganda publication, but was also a member of the then clandestine newspaper Il Popolo. In 1944 he became member of the National Council of Democrazia Cristiana. After the end of the conflict, he became responsible of the youth organization of the party.
In 1946 Andreotti was elected into the Assemblea Costituente (the provisional parliament which had the task to write the new constitution of Italy). His election was supported by Alcide De Gasperi, founder of the modern DC and of which Andreotti had became assistant. In 1948, in the newly formed Chamber of Deputies. His electoral circumscription was that of Rome-Latina-Viterbo-Frosinone, which remained the "stronghold" of his power until the 1990s.
In 1954 he became minister of the Interiors. Later he was Minister of Finances, being involved in the so-called scandalo Giuffrè (a bank cheat) of 1958, due to his lack of vigilance as minister. The Chamber of Deputies rejected all the accuses against him in the following December. In 1961-1962 he received by the chamber an official censorship due to irregularities in the construction of the Fiumicino Airport of Rome.
In the same period Andreotti started to form a corrente (political unofficial association) within Democrazia Cristiana, which was then the largest party in Italy. His sub-party was supported by the right-winged Roman Catholic area. The corrente started its activity with a press campaign aiming to encroach DC's deputy national secretary, Piero Piccioni, in the assassination of a fashion model, Wilma Montesi, at Torvaianica. After eliminating the old De Gasperi's followers in the DC's national council, Andreotti helped the also newly formed "Dorotei" corrente to remove Amintore Fanfani, an exponent of the party's left, as Italy's Prime Minister and DC's National secretary.
On 20 November 1958 Andreotti, then Minister of the Treasure, was named as president of the organization committee of the 1960 Summer Olympics to be held in Rome. In the early 1960s Andreotti was Minister of Defence: this was the period of the SIFAR dossiers scandal and of the Piano Solo, a coup planned by the neo-fascist general Giovanni De Lorenzo. Andreotti, as minister, was entrusted with the destruction of the dossiers. It has been ascertained that the dossiers, before being eliminated, had been copied and given to Licio Gelli, the leader of the secret masonic lodge Propaganda 2 involved in numerous scandals during the 1980s, and with whom Andreotti was frequently associated.
In 1968 Andreotti was named speaker of DC's parliamentary group, a position he held until 1972.
When he was Minister of Defense, he declared in an interview that the state had covered the far-right activist Guido Giannettini, investigated for the Piazza Fontana bombing. Andreotti was acquitted from the accuse of having helped Giannettini.
In 1974-1976 he was Minister of Foreign Affairs. During his tenure, Italy opened or developed its diplomatic and economical relationships with Arab countries of the Mediterranean basin, a policy previously carried on only at non-governative level (such as by Enrico Mattei's ENI). He also favored economical trades and affairs between Italy and Soviet Union.
In 1976 the centre-left government of Aldo Moro was abandoned in the Parliament by the Italian Socialist Party. The ensuing elections saw the growth of the Italian Communist Party (PCI) and DC kept only a marginal advantage as relative majority party in Italy, which was then struck by an economical crisis and by terrorism. After the result of his party, PCI's secretary Enrico Berlinguer proposed to DC's left leaders, Moro and Fanfani, to accelerate the pace of the so-called "historic compromise", a political pact proposed by Moro which would see for the first time a government coalition between DC and PCI. Andreotti was called in as the leader of the first experiment towards that direction: his new cabinet, formed in July 1976, included only DC members, but had the indirect support (based on the so-called non-sfiducia, implying the abstention during confidence voting) of the other parties, with the exception of the post-fascist Movimento Sociale Italiano. The cabinet fell in January 1978.
In the following March the crisis was overcome by the intervention of Moro, who promoted a new cabinet, again formed only by DC politicians, but this time with direct confidence vote from the other parties, including PCI. The cabinet was also chaired by Andreotti, and was formed on March 16, 1978, the same day in which Aldo Moro was kidnapped by the Communist terrorist group Brigate Rosse. The dramatic situation which followed brought PCI to vote Andreotti's cabinet in the sake of what was called the "National Solidarity", despite the refusal to accept several requests.
Andreotti's role during the kidnapping of Moro is controversial. He refused any negotiation with the terrorist, and for this was sharply criticized by Moro's family and by part of the public opinion. Moro, during his imprisonment, wrote a memorial including very harsh judgements against Andreotti. Moro was killed by the Brigate Rosse on May 1978. After his death, Andreotti continued as Prime Minister of the "National Solidarity" government, with support by PCI. Laws approved during this tenure include the reform of the National Health Assistance. However, when the Communist asked for a more direct participation to the government, Andreotti refused, and the government was dissolved on June 1979. Andreotti, due also to strife with Bettino Craxi, secretary of the other main party in Italy at the time, the Italy Socialist Party (PSI), did not hold any government position until 1983.
On April 14, Andreotti revealed to the Libyan Foreign Minister, Abdel-Rahman Shalgam, that the United States would bomb Libya the next day in retaliation for the Berlin disco terrorist attack which had been tied to Libya. As a result of the "warning" by the supposed U.S. ally Italy, Libya was better prepared for the retaliatory American strike.
As Craxi's relationship with the then-national secretary of DC, Ciriaco De Mita, were even worse, Andreotti was instrumental in the creation of the so-called "CAF triangle" (from the initials of the surnames of Andreotti, Craxi and of another DC's leader, Arnaldo Forlani) opposing De Mita's power. When the latter's government fell, in 1989, Andreotti was called to succeed him, remaining prime minister until 1992.
This last role saw several turbulent periods. Andreotti chose not to dissolve the cabinet after the DC's left ministers resigned after the approval of a law strengthening Silvio Berlusconi's monopoly on private televisions ("Legge Mammì"). Tension with Craxi also re-emerged, after the publication of the letters by Moro in which Andreotti saw a role of the PSI's leader. The Gladio scandal, the violent political declarations by the President of the Republic, Francesco Cossiga, as well as the first revelations of the Tangentopoli corruption scandal, characterized the last phases of his presidency.
Andreotti was one of the most likely candidates to succeed the latter as President of the Republic in 1992. During the long series of votes, he and the members of his corrente had adopted a strategy aiming to launch his candidature only after effectively quenching all the others (including that of Forlani). However, Andreotti's stretegy was dissolved after the assassination of judge Giovanni Falcone in Palermo, which followed that of Salvo Lima (a Sicilian politician strongly linked with Andreotti) two months before. The national emergency which resulted led to the election of Oscar Luigi Scalfaro, a less political figure, supported also by the Left.
During the first stages of Tangentopoli he was left untouched but in April 1993, after having been mentioned in the declarations of several pentitoes, he was investigated for having mafia relations. In 1994 the Democrazia Cristiana vanished from the political sphere. Andreotti adhered to the Italian People's Party founded by Mino Martinazzoli, which he abandoned in 2001, after the creation of La Margherita.
In 2006, Andreotti was a candidate as President of the Italian Senate. However, he obtained 156 votes against the 165 of Franco Marini.
On 21 January 2008, he abstained from a vote in the Senate concerning Minister Massimo D'Alema's report on foreign politics. This choice, together with the abstentions of another life senator, Sergio Pininfarina, and of two communist senators, caused the government to lose the vote: as a consequence, Prime Minister Romano Prodi resigned. On previous occasions, Andreotti had always supported Prodi's government with his vote.
Andreotti defended himself by saying he took harsh measures against the Mafia while in government. Andreotti's seventh government (1991–92) did take a number of decisive steps against Cosa Nostra - thanks to the presence of Anti-Mafia judge Giovanni Falcone at the Ministry of Justice. "When he says that he took extremely harsh measures against the Mafia, he isn't lying," according to Eugenio Scalfari, the editor of the newspaper La Repubblica. "I think at a certain point in the late Eighties he realised that the Mafia could not be controlled. He awoke from his perennial distraction... and the Mafia, which realised that it could no longer count on his protection or tolerance, assassinated his man in Sicily."
According to Mino Pecorelli's sister, Dalla Chiesa met with Pecorelli (they were both members of the secret masonic lodge Propaganda 2) a few days before the latter was assassinated. Pecorelli gave Dalla Chiesa several documents containing serious accusations against Andreotti. Just before his death in 1993, Andreotti's collaborator Franco Evangelisti described to a journalist the alleged secret meeting between Andreotti and Dalla Chiesa. During the meeting, Dalla Chiesa showed Andreotti the complete memorial of Aldo Moro (published only in 1990) containing dangerous revelations about Andreotti.
Dalla Chiesa was ambushed in his car and shot to death, together with his wife, in September 1982. The judges' reconstruction has proven that the Mafia was planning the assassination of Dalla Chiesa since 1979, three years before he became prefect of Palermo.
Such relationships became tighter in 1976, when Sindona's banks went bankrupt: Licio Gelli, chief of the P2 lodge, proposed a plan to save the Banca Privata Italiana to then minister of defense, Giulio Andreotti. The latter, however, was unable to have the plan approved by the Minister of the Treasure, Ugo La Malfa. Later Andreotti denied any personal involvement, declaring that the attempt to save the bank was merely institutional. Andreotti did not stop his relationship with Sindona when the latter fled to the United States.
Sindona, who had been arrested, brought to Italy in 1984 and condemned to life imprisonment for bankrupt and for the assassination of Giorgio Ambrosoli, was killed by a poisoned cup of coffee in the jail of Voghera on 20 March 1986. Journalist and university professor Sergio Turone has suggested that Andreotti had a role in providing the poisoned sugar which caused Sindona's death, after convincing the banker that it would cause him only to faint, hoping that this would help him to be returned to the United States. According to Turone, Andreotti feared that Sindona would reveal dangerous details about his previous life, after his condemn had proven that Andreotti had stopped to support him.) and with bishop Fiorenzo Angelini, responsible for health matters in the Vatican and also involved in the Tangentopoli scandal.
*Giuseppe Leone, "Federico II Re di Prussia e Giulio Andreotti - Due modi diversi di concepire la politica" , su "Ricorditi di me...", in "Lecco 2000", gennaio 1996.
Category:1919 births Category:Living people Category:People from Rome (city) Category:Italian politicians Category:Christian Democracy (Italy) politicians Category:Italian Ministers of the Interior Category:Italian Ministers of Foreign Affairs Category:Prime Ministers of Italy Category:Italian Life Senators Category:Italian anti-communists Category:Italian Ministers of Defence Category:Bancarella Prize winners
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Cesare Previti (born on October 21, 1934 in Reggio Calabria) is a former Italian politician.
After that, Previti worked for Berlusconi's own Fininvest company, and acquired a reputation as a ruthless, but extremely capable lawyer.
In 1994, after Berlusconi had founded his Forza Italia political party, Previti won election to the Senate. Berlusconi, upon forming his first Cabinet, had wanted him as Minister of Justice, but President of the Republic Oscar Luigi Scalfaro was opposed on account of Previti's allegedly shady dealings, so ultimately it was decided he should exchange portfolios with Alfredo Biondi, who had been earmarked for Defence. Thus Previti became the Minister of Defence in Berlusconi's first government, from May to December, 1994 (serving until January, 1995 as caretaker).
Previti was elected to the Chamber of Deputies, again for Forza Italia, both in 1996 and in 2001, but was investigated, together with Berlusconi, for allegedly bribing judges in a series of high-profile cases relating to his years of service as Berlusconi's attorney before entering politics. Previti strenuously defended his record, claiming the judges were politically motivated.
In the "Sme" case, he was sentenced to five years in jail on November 22, 2003. but he appealed and remained free On December 2, 2005 he was condemned again and sentenced to five years, but he appealed once more. On November 30, 2006 the verdict was invalidated by the Corte di Cassazione, on the ground that the Milan court did not have jurisdiction to try the case. The case has been transferred to Perugia. The prescription term, however, was very close (April 2007). He is accused of corrupting judge Renato Squillante: the sum of about $434,000 was transferred from Silvio Berlusconi's personal account to one of his lawyer Previti's accounts and later to the judge's account.
In the "Imi-Sir" case, he was sentenced to eleven years in jail on April 29, 2003 and he appealed. He was later sentenced to seven years on May 23, 2005, but he appealed again. On May 4, 2006 was definitely sentenced by the Corte di Cassazione to six years.
Thanks to laws passed by Silvio Berlusconi government, at the time of his arrest, he was already old enough to ask to have his prison time turned into house arrest. The change was carried out on May 10, 2006. Previti had spent only few days in prison. In both cases, he was also forbidden to run for or hold public offices. On December 11, 2006 he was charged with defamation. He had accused judges of hiding evidence in previous Berlusconi trials. Milan court judges were found not guilty by the Brescia court, which later opened a case against Previti. He finally resigned under great pressure from the Chamber of Deputies on 31 July 2007.
Category:1934 births Category:Living people Category:People from Reggio Calabria Category:Forza Italia politicians Category:Italian Ministers of Defence
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
